Draw your own supply chain.
Most brands have never seen their chain on one page. Put the nodes down, connect them, set the days on each leg, and the tool works out the longest path, which is your real lead time. Nothing is uploaded. It stays in your browser.
The map
Upstream, no stock sitting there
Stock you hold
Stock a platform holds
Channels you ship to
The longest path
Total lead time0 d
Connect two nodes and the longest path appears here.
Drag a node to move it, drag the background to pan, and Fit to view frames the whole chain. Ctrl or Cmd with the scroll wheel zooms. Click a leg to change its days, or clear the days to remove it.
01 · What the number is for
Your order-by date is this number, counted backwards.
Once you know the longest path, the date a decision is actually due stops being a feeling. Subtract it from the day a SKU runs dry and you have the day the order had to be placed, which is almost never the day it feels due.
Next PO placement = out-of-stock date minus total lead time. That is the whole thesis, and this map is the first half of it.
Day 90
Bring the map to the call.
If you have drawn your chain and the total surprised you, that is the conversation. Thirty minutes, no deck, and an honest read on whether this is worth doing.